Mass production expected to lower battery costs, weight
BY BRENT SNAVELY • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER •
August 8, 2009
TRAVERSE CITY -- Several automotive industry leaders said Friday they are convinced that the cost of lithium-ion batteries, as well as the size and weight of the battery, will decline substantially once automakers begin to produce them at higher volumes.
Further reducing the size and the cost of the batteries are crucial challenges facing manufacturers as they race to develop plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles aimed at consumers.
Already, GM has found a way to reduce the weight of the lithium-ion battery for the Chevrolet Volt, set to debut in 2010, to 400 pounds, down from 1,200 pounds for the lead-acid battery in the EV1, an unsuccessful electric vehicle that GM introduced in the 1990s, according to Bob Kruse, GM's executive director of global vehicle engineering.
"You can project that out over the next 10 years and imagine where we are going to be," Kruse said. "Getting the energy density up, getting the weight out, getting the cost out, that's all part of what we are going to be challenged to do."
And Kruse said GM knows it must work fast. The Volt, expected to cost close to $40,000, will initially benefit from federal tax credits of up to $7,500 per vehicle.
"That won't last, so in order to keep the electrification growing, we've got to get the costs down," Kruse said.
Kruse declined to comment on the cost of the Volt battery on Friday, but company officials have previously estimated it would cost about $8,000 per car.
Almost every major automotive manufacturer has announced plans to introduce plug-in hybrids over the next few years. The main difference between plug-in hybrids and existing hybrids -- such as the Toyota Prius and Ford Fusion -- is that plug-ins are recharged by plugging them into an electrical outlet.
"If you think about lithium-ion" batteries, "most people don't know that only 25% of the weight is actually storing energy," said Ric Fulop, founder and president of A123 Systems Inc., a battery supplier. "I think there is significant room for improvement to take that from 25% to 50% over the next decade ... and costs should come down by more than half."
Contact BRENT SNAVELY: 313-222-6512 or bsnavely@freepress.com.
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